An Origin Story
by Flowers47
Summary: When Jemma Simmons and Leo Fitz meet each other for the first time in a chemical engineering class at the S.H.I.E.L.D Sci-Tech Academy, things are...eh. But time and circumstance will bring them together to become the pair that we know and love, but until then- their story starts here. (Also posted to AO3)
1. The Begining

The first time he sees her, she's giving a presentation on the benefits of combining a lithium battery base with a solution of 2% chlorine to burn your way out of handcuffs.

It's not the kind of love-at-first-sight cliché that is so frequently used on the rom-coms that his sisters used to make him watch. He is not immediately swept away by how beautiful she is, nor does a heavenly chorus start up when she looks out into the audience and casually meets his eyes.

If that first, unexpected eye contact makes his heart jump into his throat a little, well. That's nobody's business but his.

The first emotions that he _does_ feel about her are, primarily, awe, because that's actually a really clever idea, and then mild annoyance, because he wished he had thought of it first. As he leaves the lecture hall, he doesn't make a vow to search until he learns more about her like he would if he were the tragic hero in so many movies. He doesn't even think about asking after her name, because he'd seen it printed neatly, over and over again, on the bottom left-hand corner of every slide in her tidy PowerPoint presentation.

"_Simmons" _it says, "_Simmons. Simmons."_

He doesn't think about her for a week.

The first time she sees _him_ is equally unremarkable. He's bent over a pool table and, from the looks of it, losing miserably.

"That's Leo," her roommate whispers into Simmons' ear. Jemma didn't particularly like her, but it was proving hard to make friends in the competitive atmosphere of Sci-Tech, and the roommate was the only one so far who both understood that she would never be as smart as Simmons and didn't hate her for it. Simmons appreciates that, even though it's a little annoying that she had been dragged away from her research and out to The Boiler Room tonight just so that the roommate could whisper incomprehensible things to her.

"Who's Leo?"

"The cutie you're ogling, duh!" she winks and nudges Simmons in the side, "Don't pretend that you weren't just checking him out!"

"I wasn't!" protests Simmons dumbfoundedly, because she hadn't been.

"Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Hot Stuff," the other girl winks again, more outrageously this time, "They say he's the smartest one here. Besides you, of course. He's a shoo-in for the Sandbox. You should totally, like, talk to him. You guys could be nerdy together, if you know what I mean." Another wink. Simmons hums noncommittally and then makes her escape to the library. She has a test tomorrow, after all.

Fitz discovers that she's also in his neurobiology class, and so, when the professor announces that their next assignment is group-mandatory, he asks to be paired with her. She's clearly the only one there who is capable of keeping up with him, so it makes sense on an academic level. His professor hems and haws, but comes back to Fitz the next day and says that although he prefers pairings to be random, he'll make an exception this time.

Fitz will later discover that Simmons made the same request.

They work together well enough- they are civil and distant, working on the project and nothing else. She finds him dull, he dislikes the way that she clicks her pen when she's thinking, but at least they each have a partner who's willing to pull their weight. The project is deemed a success, some of the best work the Academy has ever seen, but each privately thinks that they could have done better on their own.

Weeks pass. She eats lunch outside on the lawn, he passes by with an awkward little wave. He sets fire to the chemistry lab, she glares at him murderously from underneath her hair, soaking wet from the fire sprinklers.

Neither of them makes many friends.

Fitz has just resolved to himself that this will be his life from now on, always isolated, always too far ahead to be able to relate to his peers, when it happens.

He's walking through the library late at night, deep in the basement stacks searching for a specific book that he wants to reference, when he hears voices.

"Whatever insult you think I have made against you, I can assure you, you are mistaken," comes a crisp, upper-class English accent, "I meant no offense. I barely even recognize you, I can promise you that a slight was not deliberate-" her voice is firm, eager to please, eager to be polite, but nothing more.

"Oh, yeah, like you haven't been looking at this." The answering voice is rough and harsh, the latent anger in the man's voice sending goose bumps up Fitz's spine, "Like you haven't been watching me, wishing you could have a piece. I bet you dream about me, sweetheart, and today is your lucky day."

Simmons' voice has an element of fear to it now- she's starting to panic, "What? No, I-"

"Do yourself a favor and shut the hell up," the unseen man interrupts. There's a loud thump and then silence, and Fitz is running, running as fast as he can towards the voices and thanking the gods that he'd already taken Basic Combat 210. He rounds the corner and there they are; Simmons crouched in a low fighting stance, fists in front of her face to block the blows that are raining down from the hulking third-year that Fitz thinks he _might_ recognize. She's holding her own, throwing a punch in here, connecting with a chiseled cheekbone there, swinging a leg out to knock Big Guy off his feet. But she's no field agent, and the man must have a hundred pounds on her, and he hits her sharply on the back of the knee and she's down too, and he's rolling to lie on top of her, and she's so small that Fitz can't even see her anymore and his vision goes red and then things become very, very clear. He's jumping on the big guy's back before he's quite told his body to do so, and the other man is so shocked that he pulls away from Simmons and starts turning around, trying to find the leprechaun on his back. Fitz slides off and around and, in the coolest combat move he will likely ever make, kicks the guy square in the chest. There's no way that his weak muscles can do anything in a hand-to-hand fight against the third year, but the bastard was caught off guard and addled with lust, so his stance is off balance just enough that Fitz's kick sends him flying backwards.

Fitz grabs ahold of Simmons' arm where she's pulled herself up against the bookshelves and pulls her along beside him. They run and run and run until they've reaches Fitz's dorm and she clings to him as he fumbles with the keys, and then they're inside. They're safe, and the horrible thing that Fitz knew would have happened did not happen, and there's no way that asshole could have followed them. They may not be the best fighters but both he and Simmons are light on their feet, and they ran like hell. He collapses, gasping, onto the floor and only then does he realize that the tiny woman beside him is shaking.

"Simmons, right?" he asks, and she looks up at him from where she's huddled in a ball on the floor next to him, "Simmons, we have to get you to Health Services. You're going into shock, and who knows how many ribs you've bruised. We need to tell someone what happened."

She's gasping these huge gulps of air and, god, she won't stop shaking as she grabs his forearm again, her eyes blown wide with fear, "No! No, please, please, let me just stay here for a little while. I can't go out there again, not yet, I can't-"

"It's okay. It's alright, we'll go in the morning," He tries to reassure her, curling his free hand around the back of her head gently. He tugs her in and she lets him, squishing herself up against his side and resting her face against his neck, "You can stay for as long as you need, Simmons."

"Jemma.."

"What?" He doesn't understand.

"It's Jemma. My name. Please call me Jemma."

"Okay. Okay, I will, Jemma." She breaks then, and sobs these horrible quiet little tears into the collar of his shirt for what seems like half the night.

He holds her, and lets her cry.

In the morning she calls her roommate to let her know that she's okay. The roommate is shocked, horrified! and Jemma is suddenly very glad that it was Fitz who found her, so that she didn't have to deal with this hysteria. The roommate agrees to go with her to Campus Police to report the incident, and they hang up after agreeing to meet back at her dorm. Fitz sits beside her on his bed silently staring at his clasped hands. There is an uncomfortable pause.

Simmons looks around at the walls of his single room and realizes that they're covered with schematics. Blueprints, calculations- he's even got a set of glassware on a desk in the corner. For the first time since this all began, the nausea in her stomach lessens slightly, and she feels a little less like she's going to be sick. She stands to walk around the room, looking at each of the papers in turn, her mouth slightly open with awe. Fitz comes to stand next to her. He points out a few of the finer details of his ideas, and soon they're having a rousing debate over which element is the best (She says phosphorus, he's sticking to hydrogen). Simmons can't stay for long- she has to meet her roommate- but as she stands on the threshold of his room she says, "May I…may I come back? There was something you said about the atomic threshold of the speed of light that I'd like to talk more about. And I think I might have something to add to that layout for the de-emulsifier?" She smiles up at him shyly.

"Anytime, Jemma." He beams back, and Simmons feels that, maybe, she can find a way to get rid of this weight lying on her chest. She touches his hand and says, "Thanks, Fitz," and feels just a little bit lighter.


	2. Exposition

They can't stay away from each other. He learns all her favorite haunts. She drops by his dorm so regularly that the other guys in the hall start wiggling their eyebrows at him and making cracks about "Genius Romeo". He and Simmons aren't like that, he doesn't think about her like that (okay, fine, maybe he did once or twice. But never again!) but the leers of the other students make him angry and nervous. He wishes they would stop looking at Simmons like that, like she's not a person, because she is.

She's the most amazing person he's ever met.

He asks if he can meet her at the frozen yogurt place on campus instead.

Soon they are unstoppable. His insights correct her inventions; her enthusiasm inspires designs of his own. She's better at biology, he can make physics make sense. People whisper about them in hallways, their names always said in conjunction with each other until they blend into one incredible unit- FitzSimmons.

She tells herself that she hates his accent, that it's annoying, not adorable. He pretends that he wishes she were less of a rule-follower.

They're both lying.

Simmons' adores his curly hair. She occasionally daydreams about combing her fingers through it; she thinks about the shocked expression that would bloom on his face, how he would stammer and blush, how she could push him back and lean in and become the center of his world. Fitz can't get enough of her smile. He makes jokes constantly, stupid ones, dumb ones, on the off chance that she'll laugh. And, though he'll never, ever, ever admit this to anyone- all she really has to do is smile at him like that, like she's proud of him, and he'd do anything she asked him to. But neither does, because that's not the sort of person that they are.

He knows that she was brilliant before they met. He was too! But, somehow…they're better when they're together. It's better than the first time they worked together, and neither is sure why, but they're engineers, not psychologists, so they don't question it. All they know is that _finally_ somebody else can grasp the concepts that they're discussing. They finish each other's sentences and can read each other's minds (well, not really. Simmons knows that that is just impossible!) but more than that, they get each other. Jemma won't make fun of Leo when he admits that he actually kind of likes all those romantic movies he used to watch with his sisters back home, and Fitz won't judge Simmons when she gets anxious and freaks out over nothing.

He testifies for her at the hearing of the Sci-Tech student that attacked her. He's never had to do anything like that before but it's easier than he thought. Almost as soon as he begins describing what he saw to the court, he becomes indignant and furious all over again, and he's certain that the jury understood what he was trying to say. To protect her privacy Simmons isn't there, but he pictures the way she looked that night and then how he's seen her in the weeks since, grinning and glowing with her passion for their work. He promises himself that he'll never let anyone take that child-like enthusiasm away from her.

Jemma, for her part, waits nervously outside Fitz's dorm until he comes back. When he finally arrives, she trembles nervously for a minute and then blurts out, "Would you like to spend part of the holiday with me in Derbyshire?" She comes from a little village in the middle of England and, even though she knows that Glasgow is much further north, her hometown is _so small_ that she knows she be bored out of her mind without him. "I mean, I know you're going to go see your family for Christmas and all, but I just thought maybe we could meet up towards the end of the holiday and then fly back here together. My mum has been dying to meet you, she won't shut up about it, and-" Leo grins at her, humour lighting up his whole face.

"Jemma. You're rambling." She blushes and falls silent. "Of course I wanna spend break with you. What else would I be doing?"

"Oh. Oh, good," they're both smiling stupidly at each other now, she knows it, "Well, that's settled then." She pivots neatly on her heel and marches into the residence hall, hoping that her blush will have faded by the time Fitz catches up. They spend the rest of the evening discussing theoretical trans-nuclear wormholes, and Simmons doesn't think she's ever been happier.


	3. Adventures in Other People

It feels like they've been at the Academy for forever but really, it's only been a few months. The days pass in a whirl of exams and knowledge and they spend their evenings owning at ping-pong in the Boiler Room. They get spectacularly drunk one night and join a group of Physics majors in a game of "Secret Poker", in which they are coerced into betting secrets rather than money. Jemma is shite at cards and is forced to confess all manner of things- that she got her family placed on a MI5 watch list at the age of 6 by trying to order uranium ore online, that she used to dream of being a professional pop star, that she didn't realize that her first kiss was happening until it was already over (she was 16 and still _very_ oblivious to the way people of her age were supposed to interact). Fitz finds all of this uproariously funny, but stops being quite so amused when he starts on a losing streak. None of Jemma's secrets were particularly dark due to her rule-following nature, but Fitz's younger years were a little crazy, to say the least. He offers to walk Simmons back to her dorm to avoid talking about what happened to his father, so she bids him goodnight with big sad eyes that tell him that she already knows his darkest secrets and wants to keep him around anyway. He kisses her on the cheek- softly, drunkenly- and says goodnight.

They each go out on a couple of dates. Fitz doesn't much like the look of the guys Simmons picks- they're all fairly fit, a little foxy, and "complete prats" as he bitches to one of his friends from Technical Design. But it's none of his business who Jemma goes out with, and it doesn't matter what he thinks, because she can choose a life partner for herself, thank you very much.

He just doesn't understand why he isn't partner enough.

The engineer even makes nice with one of the guys, a blondie who's studying Alien Biology. He does it for Simmons' sake because, even though he doesn't get a say in who she dates, she'd "still like your opinion every once in a while, Fitz." Isaac is nice enough; he's polite and interesting, and Fitz has to admit that he finds the other man's field of study intriguing. It comes as a surprise to him when the guy flags Fitz down as he's crossing campus one day.

"Hey! Hey, Leo!"

"Oh, hi, Isaac."

"Listen, I wanted to ask you…what do you think about double-dating with me and Jem some time? I know this great girl, Lee, she's the best, and she'd love to meet you. You're not seeing anybody, right?" Fitz shakes his head in the negative. "Great! Seriously, I think you'd like her. And, well…I know how important you are to Jem. You mean a lot to her and I think if the four of us went out together, that'd make her really happy. Whaddaya say?"

Fitz can't think of anything to say besides stammering his agreement. After all, it would be nice to have some romantic company for once.

The double-date goes surprisingly well. Lee is a pretty second-year who, even though Fitz can never figure out what she's actually studying, seems pretty interested in cars. They talk about Stark's historic flying car and what modifications would have to be made to the engine to achieve it, and Fitz is pleased to discover that Lee isn't half bad at bowling. She's also very intelligent, and they spend a lot of time talking about famous cars in popular culture. They even have a lovely little fake-argument about whether Impalas or De Loreans are better, with Lee and Simmons defending the Impala and Fitz and Isaac on the side of the time-traveling vehicle. The only annoying thing is that she insists on calling him Leo, despite his saying numerous times that he prefers his surname. But on the whole, he decides that the date was a good idea. He likes being out with Jemma…and Isaac too, of course. It follows logically that Fitz should ask Lee out on a second date, so he does.

That date is considerably worse.

Lee is now blatantly ignoring his requests to be called Fitz. She recommends sushi (he can't stand fish); he suggests they see a movie (she hates "capitalist propaganda"). The scientist spends the whole night wondering what happened to the laughter and easy-going atmosphere of the previous night. He calls Jemma to tell her about it as he drags himself back to his dorm at the end of the night, alone, and suddenly realizes what was missing.

His best friend.

"Fitz! You're back so early! What happened?" her voice is somehow both soothing and scolding at the same time.

"I dunno Jemma. I guess I just missed….astrophysics too much."

"Oh, Fitz. You do love your astrophysics."

"Yeah, I really do," he is emphatic, "And Lee just wasn't like, enough of an astrophysicist, you know? And, her eyes were the wrong shade of brown and she was talking geometry when all I could think of was differential calculus!"

"You can't have everything, I suppose."

But Fitz thinks, _Why not?_

_Why not?_

Simmons learns the same lesson within a few weeks, when she decides that she and Isaac are missing that special spark. She know that "the spark" is just an increase in neural firing due to the release of protective-instinct inducing hormones, but that doesn't make it any less real. And it doesn't mean that she wants it any less. Isaac is wonderful, and all her friends like him, but there's just something about him…maybe if he were a little shorter. Or a brunette. Maybe if he were really passionate about something, for example, monkeys….whatever it is, Jemma decides they would be better as friends and to her surprise, Isaac agrees. The Englishwoman is pleased by how amicable the breakup is, and takes Fitz out for kebabs to celebrate. Funny, she has a better time going out with Fitz as a friend than she did with Isaac as a boyfriend…well, she supposes, you can't have everything.

For being such smart people, the pair of them are exceptionally blind.


End file.
